WESTERN DEFENCE ministries are talking up their willingness to take on a new enemy: climate change. In March Lloyd Austin, America’s defence secretary, wrote that “the changing climate is altering the global security and operating environments, impacting our missions, plans and installations.” The Pentagon set up a “Climate Working Group” after an executive order from President Joe Biden that climate considerations should be considered a greater foreign-policy and national-security priority.
American allies are making similar noises. On March 30th Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) published its “Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach”. In the foreword, Lieutenant-General Richard Nugee, who led the review, wrote: “The character of warfare is changing fast; so is the climate...The imperative could not be clearer: Defence must and will act now.” A few days previously, a meeting of NATO foreign ministers had agreed to make climate change a far greater priority.